Modules

We will create web-based interactive curricular modules as part of
this project. Each module will include background readings, including
historical and philosophical treatments of relevant computer and network
science and
issues surrounding social networks. These modules will be made freely
available as an Open Educational
Resource.

Projects

Cobib

CoBib Homepage

The goal of the CoBib project is to design, implement, and test a web
database that enables collaborative indexing and annotation of
citations within a research community. This system facilitates the
structural and social elements of research: a survey of literature in a
specified field, as well as discussion of the prevalent researchers or
themes in that field. The database stores citations that refer to
research papers. Researchers locate citations by searching, a direct
query for a particular citation, or by browsing, an indirect survey of
existing records. The system enables users to learn about research
through explicit and implicit recommendations.

Duke Scrobbler

Scrobbler Dashboard

The Duke Scrobbler Suite is a set of tools adapted
from the AudioScrobblerclient that enables users to track their music listening habits through
an online interface and to find other users with similar tastes and
habits. The Duke Scrobbler Java client updates a user's listening
profile on the Duke Scrobbler web site, tracking changes in his or her
iTunes library. Using the Duke Scrobbler web site, users can find other
users who like the same artist, song, or album and track popular songs
and artists among the users of the site and their immediate social
network on Facebook. Duke Scrobbler makes it easy to find people with
similar tastes and friend them on Facebook, or use your friends'
listening habits to discover new music.

Duke News: In
Search of Billy Joel Fans: Duke Scrobbler software helps people
with similar music tastes find each other by Sylvia Pfeiffenberger, April 25, 2007.

Duke GUESS

GUESS is an exploratory data analysis and visualization tool developed by
Eytan Adar that is particularly well-suited for our work on
networks. We have adapted our own version, Duke GUESS, for use in our
courses. For example, In the Steven Johnson's popular book,
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually
Making Us Smarter, he argues that current television shows have far
more complex plots involving more complex social networks than stories
in the past. The adjoining figure shows the Duke GUESS tool visualizing
the social network around the show 24's main character Jack
Bauer. Students can use GUESS to interactively and programmatically ask
questions about networks.